.- An international medical organization has recently concluded that there is an increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had abortions.
The Illinois-based Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer has pointed out that this is the seventh recent instance of a respected medical association recognizing the link.
The medical group, MaterCare International, an international organization of Catholic Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has released a statement saying that they were presented with “evidence of the link between abortion and breast cancer” during an international conference in Rome in October of 2004.
They cited Dr. Joel Brind's research group as the source of the new information.
The group said that based on medical and epidemiological evidence, “there is a significant increase in breast cancer risk after induced abortion, especially before the first full term pregnancy.”
“This evidence”, they pointed out however, “has been denied by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other researchers.”
They said that recent studies done to counter the new evidence “have serious methodological weaknesses and flaws and therefore do not invalidate the conclusion that there is a increased risk of breast cancer.”
Dr. Brind’s new findings were published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, in the winter of 2005 edition.
MaterCare’s statement stressed that, "Women have a basic right to know of this increased risk of breast cancer and it is unacceptable that the information should be denied to them by the medical and cancer research establishments.’
The group added that it recognizes “its responsibilities in this matter and will do all it can to publish this evidence."
